A couple of weeks ago, I was entirely addicted to the Playstation 2 (PS2) game, The God of War. I finished playing it in the normal heroic mode a while back but I wanted more so I started the game again but in god mode this time. The only reason I stopped playing it for over a week now was because the PAL version of the PS2 game Tekken 5 was at last released in Australia just several days ago. Tekken 5 was released as early as February of this year in the US. Lucky dogs.
Final Round… Fight!.
I wasn’t really a big fan of Tekken in the past. I played it a few times in the video arcade when I was still in the Philippines but it really didn’t caught my fancy. I was still more interested with 2D fighting games back then like the various incarnations of Street Fighter (Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha-Zero, Street Fighter Alpha-Zero 2!, etc…), Capcom Marvel Fighting games and Mortal Kombat.

When I moved to Australia, I had a friend who liked video games a lot that he owned the Sega Dreamcast when it came out, then a PS2 and then a Microsoft XBox. He liked fighting games, too, so we spent a lot of time playing more Street Fighter incarnations, Guilty Gear X and SNK vs Capcom. But with the next generation of gaming consoles, 3D fighting games were more appealing than in the good old days. So, we also played a lot of Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur II, Dead or Alive 2, Tekken Tag Tournament and Tekken 4. Since he owned the game consoles, he got more practice than I did. The end result was that I lost more often than he did. But it was okay. I loved the competition anyway.

Then when Raquel moved to Australia a few years back, she brought her Playstation One (PSOne) with her. One of the games she had brought with her was Tekken 3. It was certainly older than the PS2 Tekken Tag Tournament or Tekken 4 but at least I finally had a chance to practice some of the moves and combos of Tekken characters that were also on the later Tekken games.

When I moved to Melbourne and bought my very own PS2 a few months back, I bought some of the fighting games I used to play back in Canberra: Dead or Alive, Tekken 4 and Soul Calibur II. I didn’t get Tekken Tag because I thought it was too old and I would have a tough time trading the game later. As it turns out, Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag were much better than Tekken 4 so I ended up returning Tekken 4 anyway. I decided not to get Tekken Tag after that because I was aware that Tekken 5 will be coming out soon and that it will be more like Tekken Tag than Tekken 4. As for Dead or Alive, I found the controls unappealing now so I returned that game, too.

I was left with Soul Calibur II which I really love since Soul Calibur came out for Dreamcast. I guess it also doesn’t hurt that the game has a Pinoy character called Talim (means blade, edge or sharpness in Tagalog) who uses two blades for weapons. Don’t believe she’s supposed to be Pinoy? Here are some of her moves: Tagga No Kamay (I guess the “no” here is the Japanese “of” so it should actually be Taga ng Kamay), Sunggab Throw, Swift Espada, Spinning Low Hiwa, Tuhod Slicer, Double Abaniko, Salisi Razor, Handa Blade, Twin Fang Sahig, Whirlwind Hambalos, Sipa Rising, Planchada Cyclone, Isa Hampas, etc. Can you imagine if it was an anime show and the fighter yells out the moves while performing it?

Anyway, I realised that although I would’ve liked to be able to play these fighting games with a real person, I still enjoyed playing through it at increasing levels of difficulty. That’s why I decided to still get Tekken 5 when it came out. I could just fight the AI-controlled characters and pretend their just end-bosses in a game like God of War.

So the past few days, I’ve been busy playing Tekken 5 whenever there is nothing better to watch on TV or DVD. This game has lots of modes and I’m still not through all of them. I guess that’s good. I’ll have my money’s worth and I’ll be kept busy while I’m waiting for the Soul Calibur II sequel, Soul Calibur III, to be released later this year.